Fires in the Amazon rainforest during the dry season are not unique in themselves, but the number of fires is increasing at a record rate. Forest harvesting has also accelerated considerably this year, and this is something that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) points out as a contributing cause.

"Historically, in this region, the use of fire is directly linked to logging because it is a technique for clearing trees," WWF writes in a statement.

Pointing out activists

One who has turned to that description is Brazil's right-wing populist president Jair Bolsonaro. Instead, he points out environmental activists as possibly guilty and suggests that it all aims to put him in a bad mood.

According to Bolsonaro, it may be "criminal acts by activist groups, to bring opinion to me, against the Brazilian government".

"This is what we are facing," Bolsonaro told reporters according to the AFP news agency.

- The fires were lit in strategic places. All indications indicate that they have gone there to film and start fires. That's how I see it.

Rejects the charges

Activists have responded by calling the allegations "absurd", and with protests in the city of Salvador.

"The fires are the result of a devastating policy," says Camila Veiga of the Brazilian NGO.